From Proud Heritage, Vol. 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
William Alfred Cole was the seventh child of John Cole (born 1795) and Polly McDonald Cole (born 1794). He was the first of their children to be born in Crawford County, Arkansas, July 14, 1829. Within a few years the family moved to Washington County, the next county to the north. They resided there on a 200 acre farm until leaving for Texas, arriving here in December, 1843.
William received a 320 acre Peters Colony Certificate but transferred it unpatented June 15, 1853 to J.C. Hawpe. William lived at home with his mother and five brothers until early in 1851. Between then and 1855 he went to Bexar County and settled near San Antonio. It is possible that William went to Bexar County with his brother, James, and his brother’s wife and sister-in-law. James bought land in Bexar County in the summer of 1851.
In San Antonio, on November 8, 1858, William married Mary Jane Bennett who was a sister to James’ wife. Mary Jane’s father and mother were Hiram Bennett and Dosia Dobbs, the heads of a pioneer Dallas County family from Georgia. She was born in Arkansas December 23, 1842.
William Cole served in Company D of Capt. Charles de Montel’s regiment during the Civil War. The family moved from Bexar County to Bell County, then Medina County. Their first three children were born in Bell County, the other eleven in Median County. They were: Margaret C. born 1859, Sarah Malinda born 1861, Ida W. born 1865, Arthur B. born 1867, Alfred C. born 1869, Mary Alice born 1869, Hiram C. born 1871, John William born 1874, Abbie D. born 1875, Arch F. born 1877, Joseph Bennett born 1879, David B. born 1881, an unnamed girl who died at birth in 1883, and Lillian M. born 1885.
Mary Jane Cole died in San Antonio December 18, 1895 and is buried in Devine, Medina County, Texas. William Alfred Cole died while living at the home of his daughter, Ida Rackley, in Marathon, Brewster County, Texas on May 26, 1914 and is buried in Marathon.
By Homer Warlick, Dallas
